The Hollow Pond
MAHD Productions
Conventions Of Thriller Films:
Thriller films are clearly different to other films types through the use of setting, visual style, themes, ideology, actors, character types, narratives, iconography, cinematography, special effects, sound and music.
Also thriller has many sub-genres; from mystery and crime to religious and romantic thriller, however all the thriller sub-genres main elements and purpose is to create tension, build suspense and bring excitement to its audience.
Characters often used in thriller films are antagonists such as criminals, stalkers, murders, assassins, psychotic individuals and escaped cons, also these antagonists regularly have a victim which may sometimes be the main character in the film, these characters are usually an helpless women or innocent people.
Many thriller films have ‘grey’ characters, this means that the character is neither good or bad; examples of these ‘grey’ characters in movies would be Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson in the movie “Pain & Gain”, Wahlberg and Johnson can be considered as ‘grey’ characters, as they are torturing and kidnapping a wealthy man however they feel as if they are doing the wrong thing, this suggests that they are ‘grey’ characters, because they are doing something bad and illegal, but they see it as them doing the right thing and getting justice.
Other key convention used in thriller films are sound and the type of music used in thriller films. The type of music in a thriller film can vary, however eerie and slow music is frequently used in many thriller films. Sounds regularly used in thriller films are creaking doors/floorboards, crows, evil laughs, children's laughter ,screaming and gun shots.
Eerie and slow music is pretty much only used in thriller films, as it builds tension especially if the music starts slow and gradually gets louder.
~Anthony Aragones
My research on conventions of thriller films was important, as it informed me what makes a thriller film distinct from other films. This research gave me ideas on what could go in my thriller film and the research taught me certain themes or props that are unique to thriller films.
~Anthony Bukenya